Taliban attacks have declined in most of Afghanistan for the first time but insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistan are feeding violence on the border and threatening the US-led war effort, the Pentagon said in a report Friday.
A surge of US and allied troops has paved the way for security gains in the south and elsewhere while the Taliban have failed to gain back former southern strongholds in Helmand and Kandahar provinces, the Pentagon said in its report to Congress.
"The most significant development during this reporting period is the reduction in year-over-year violence," said the progress report, which covered April 1 to September 30. After five successive years with insurgent attacks steadily rising, Taliban-initiated violence began to drop in May as compared to the previous year, it said. The total number of "enemy-initiated attacks" fell to a total of 2,500 in September, compared to about 4,000 in the same month last year, it said.
US and coalition commanders have touted positive trends in violence levels in recent weeks, but the report provided the fullest account yet of what senior officers believe to be a promising shift in the 10-year-old war. In seven areas where Nato has transferred security duties this year to Afghan forces, insurgents have sometimes tried to reverse the transition but government units "have been able to handle them on their own," a senior defence official said.
The report showed US and allied troops were "on track" with plans to gradually hand over security for the whole country to Afghan forces by the end of 2014, despite worries over insurgent havens in Pakistan, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters. But insurgent camps in neighbouring Pakistan beyond the reach of Nato forces, as well as the Afghan government's shortcomings, posed a risk to overall progress, the report said.
"Although security continues to improve, the insurgency's safe havens in Pakistan, as well as the limited capacity of the Afghan Government, remain the biggest risks to the process of turning security gains into a durable, stable Afghanistan," it said. Security conditions in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border and south of Kabul, remain "tenuous," with violence sharply up compared to last year's summer fighting season. "The rise in violence and the insurgency's ability to carry out operations in the east is directly attributable to safe havens in Pakistan," it said.